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If you took a peek at last week’s Les Vendredis Francophones then you saw this delicious chocolate cake I made for my mother-in-law’s birthday last week. This is one of those cakes that will give your guests the impression that you’re a master pastry chef, and it is so crazy-easy that you’ll find yourself making it again and again. I know that vegan cakes can sometimes run on the “heavy” side, but this one has a light, tight crumb that will leave people doubting it’s really vegan…

After a little trial and a bit of error, I bring you this low-fat delight with but a mere 40g (about 3 tbsp) of butter – apple sauce replacing the initial 3/4 cups the original artery-clogging recipe called for. Tasty and modest in the fat department? Who would have thought?

Serve this rich chocolate cake with a cup of espresso, or with your favourite non-dairy ice cream for extra-special birthday (or any day) fun!

low-fat vegan chocolate cake

2 tbsp Ener-G (or egg replacer of your choice for 2 eggs)

4 tbsp water

180 g brown sugar

40 g non-dairy butter, softened

225 ml apple sauce

60 ml soy milk

100 g unsweetened cocoa powder

200 g AP flour

1 tbsp corn starch

1 1/2 tbsp baking powder

1) Pre-heat your oven to 180°c and butter and flour a 25cm bunt pan.

2) Using an electric mixer, beat the Ener-G and water until frothy, then add the butter and sugar and continue mixing for about 5 minutes. Next, add the soy milk and apple sauce and blend until smooth.

3) Sift in the cocoa powder, corn starch, flour and baking powder, and blend with a wooden spoon until “just mixed”. If you stir too much you’ll have a chewy cake, and that would be sad.

4) Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 or 15 minutes, then gently reverse it onto a cooling rack.

When we celebrated Guppy’s birthday earlier this month, we also celebrated the birthday of a very dear friend known around these parts as Tata Katy. They had a joint birthday party, and agreed on the dino theme because you’re never too old for dinos, right?

I was so busy with finishing up Katy’s gift (literally 5 minutes before we left for the party) I failed to take a picture, which was frustrating. Thankfully Katy was cool with taking a picture for me once she got home :

She wrote her own caption for the photo, above.

This is just a brown cotton/linen blend tote bag with an embroidered accent. I just measured the size I thought she’d like and trimmed the corners on the bottom. Easy peasy. However, as often happens when you make something you find adorable for someone, you find yourself wishing for one, too.

Wrinkled, because I’ve been using it all week!

Isn’t she sweet?

Lovely floral lining from my stash. I found it vaguely Japanese.

I have to be honest, I’ve been loving up my new tote all week. It’s perfect for lugging lessons to and from work in style. I wish I had more of that chocolate coloured fabric, but it was just some left-over curtains in my stash…and it’s nearly gone now.

The embroidery pattern is a Sublime Stitching freebie that I found via Florista’s flickr stream…the morning of the birthday party! But like Florista, I just had to stitch it right away it’s so sweet. I have a feeling I’ll be using this embroidery pattern again…

Look at those phenomenally-gorgeous mini-cupcakes that the dear Maggie of Dog Hill Kitchen made for my mum, aka Mammafish! Not only did Maggie put love, time and genuine effort into this sweet birthday gift, but she delivered them personally to my mother! I know not everyone lives close enough to bring her something sweet – heaven knows I can’t - and when Maggie said she was up for a “special delivery” I was just giddy with excitement. She even made them vegan! She also threw in a jar of her homemade quince jam made with organic quince from her father-in-law’s garden! Talk about an extended-family affair! Maggie’s got the recipe for the Strawberry-Topped Vegan Lemon Mini-Cupcakes up on her blog if you want to make some for your mother (or for yourself!).

Thanks again, Maggie! You are a real friend, and you made my mother’s (and father’s) day!

Riding the high from knowing how well this first surprise went and hearing the joy in my mother’s voice over the telephone, I stumbled upon two other (much less important) surprises! My humble little blog got two very special mentions this weekend and I’m feeling so snazzy-pants about it!

Erik Marcus featured my Vegan Spinach Pasta from the March Daring Bakers Challenge on Vegan.com! I must admit, I was feeling a little sparkly!

And the Feeling Stitchy blog gave a special mention to my Little Bear which I literally just happened upon. I clicked on the blog and began scrolling down and was like, “hey, that bear looks like mine…it is mine!”. How flattering!

I obviously wish that I had come up with this cute little bear, but anyone can stitch themselves one! Just visit Hillary Lang’s Wee Wonderfuls blog, and you can score yourself a free pattern, too!

We’re about to begin an exciting week! April is just a few days away, Friday is my mother’s birthday and I’m feeling really excited about getting gifty-projects ready for Easter and Guppy’s birthday. Have a great week!